Salt Lake Health Dept. Not Liable For Incorrectly Declaring Ex-Meth House Safe; Homeowners Vacate, Leaving Lender Holding The Bag

In Salt Lake County, Utah, KSL-TV Channel 5 reports:

• A Salt Lake County family is devastated after a judge ruled they can't sue the health department for negligence. The family unknowingly purchased a home that was once a meth lab, but the Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) later told them inspectors had declared it was safe to live in. Our investigative team tested the home last year and discovered it was still contaminated with meth.

• [Friday], a district court judge dismissed the [family's] lawsuit against the SLVHD, because there's a Utah law in place that protects the agency from liability. It's called Governmental Immunity -- basically the [family] can accuse the health department of negligence, they just can't sue them over it.

***

• After a neighbor informed the family they'd purchased a former meth lab, the health department assured them it had been decontaminated, it was even in writing. Then, last spring, we came along and tested the home and found meth contamination all over the place. [...] Here are the facts for the [family]: They can't afford the $40,000 it'll cost to decontaminate the meth home, and it'll go into foreclosure.

For more, see Court: Family can't sue health department over meth house.

In a related KSL-TV Channel 5 report, see: Former Meth Houses Declared "Safe" May Not Be:

• Hundreds of Utah homes, former meth labs, have been shut down until they're rid of the dangerous drug. But an Eyewitness News Investigation uncovers disturbing evidence: Homes the government reopened and declared safe, may not be. [...] We discovered there are now more than 250 homes in the Salt Lake area that were once meth labs. Do the people living there now know that? Or did sellers keep it a secret? We went knocking on some doors.

Go here and Go here for other posts on home-based methamphetamine labs.

Editor's Note:

The day mortgage lenders begin requiring mold and methamphetamine inspections(1) from homebuyers seeking a home loan may soon be approaching (and could become as common as getting a termite inspection).

The day may also be coming when laws are changed to require law enforcement, health department officials, etc. to record a notice in the public record (the same way one records a lien against real estate) that a home, apartment, etc. was the cite of a methamphetamine or marijuana grow house bust and may require remediation. Such a notice, when discovered in the course of a title search, would warn both the homebuyer and lender of a "secret charge" (the cost of remediation) against the real estate that someone will ultimately have to "satify."

(1) At least in those homes that have a recent foreclosure listed in its chain of title. meth lab yak